The next stop on our road to the Disney Afternoon takes us to 1986. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears proves a massive hit and enters its second season despite a death in the show's central cast. In fact, the death of Bill Scott also leads to the cancellation of The Wuzzles in the process. In film, Disney's next release is The Great Mouse Detective, which proves more successful critically and financially over 85's The Black Cauldron, but just only makes $38.7 million over a $14 million budget. Regardless, Disney is ready to continue their wave of momentum in their television endeavors with their next big project. That's right, I'm finally talking about... The... Fluppy Dogs?
Airing on November 27th of 1986, Disney's The Fluppy Dogs was a one hour special that was built as an intended pilot to a Saturday Morning cartoon. The special featured a group of multicolored anthropomorphic dogs who use a magic key to jump from dimension to dimension in hopes of finding their way home. Think Sliders, but more furry. It accompanied the toyline that was being released around the same time. However, despite having the Disney name attached, it still ended up as one of the week's lowest rated programs, ultimately leading to any future Fluppy projects being cancelled. Thankfully Disney didn't write themselves into a corner with this fluppy flop, and had another show in the works around the same time. That show ending up becoming one of their crown jewels.
I talked a lot about DuckTales when I covered the show for an entire month back in June, so I'll try not to repeat too much. DuckTales premiered in syndication on September 18th, 1987. It would serve as Disney's first major jump into the lucrative syndication market. With with the Disney name behind it, along with the success of Gummi Bears, the show had good karma from out of the gate. Fluppy Dogs notwithstanding. DuckTales' birth mainly comes out of inspiration from the The Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge comics, which gave us Scrooge McDuck, along with many of the ideas and concepts that would lead into DuckTales distinct adventure series style.
Disney seemed to be slowly integrating Scrooge into the main Disney "canon" of sorts for decades. Twenty years prior to DuckTales, Scrooge would make his first animated appearance in "Scrooge McDuck and Money", an educational film about the invention of money, taxes and the importance of the budget. It even talked about the dangers of inflation (something the show also covers pretty well too). The next time Scrooge spoke would be in 1974 on a record adaptation of A Christmas Carol. There, Scrooge was voiced by actor Alan Young, who had made his name as Wilbur on the sitcom Mr. Ed. It would be Young that they would use again when they made an animated adaptation of Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983. There was also Sports Goofy in Soccermania, a strange special that aired in 1987 that also featured Scrooge, the nephews, and the Beagle Boys. It was a rare occasion where Scrooge wasn't voiced by Young, but instead by Will Ryan.
While Walt Disney Television Animation had initially been told by Michael Eisner to not involve their established library of characters for their television programs, when it came time to create a show for the syndicated market, they killed that concept in favor of using recognizable characters that would have strong marquee value. This would include Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey and Louie, along with the rare Donald Duck appearance (Believing that Donald's garbled voice would be hard to understand, so his involvement got heavily cut out of the series). And for world building, Disney would take many of the concepts built out of the works of Carl Barks. This included settings like Duckburg, characters like Magica De Spell, The Beagle Boys, Gyro Gearloose and more. The series would rely on high quality animation, with a good majority of its first season being animated by the famous Tokyo Movie Shinsha, who also worked on Gummi Bears in its first seasons. Episodes that followed were animated from Wang Animation/Cuckoo's Nest and Burbank Animation (Though I believe just for "Down And Out In Duckburg"). DuckTales would see 101 segments within 100 episodes and enjoy a series run from September 18th, 1987 to November 28th, 1990.
The series is primarily set in Duckburg, a fictional city in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals (primarily dogs, pigs and ducks). After joining the navy, Donald Duck leaves his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie in the care of their uncle Scrooge McDuck, who also happens to be the richest duck in the world. Together, along with other characters like their caretaker Mrs. Beakley, her granddaughter Webby, and their crash-prone pilot Launchpad McQuack, they travel the globe in search of adventures galore while dealing with many vile villains. Since we've brought up that cast of characters, let's get a bit more detailed.
Scrooge McDuck, as previously mentioned, is the richest duck in the world. However, he never earned his money by being lazy. Ever since earning his first dime as a kid, he learned that the way to success is to "work smarter, not harder". He's tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties. Despite that high praise, he's also a notorious skinflint, often hating the idea of parting with a single cent. More often than not, he'll haggle you into paying more than you intended If he didn't have all that money, how else could he partake in his favorite activity of swimming in the mountains of coins he's amassed in his money bin? This also is his ultimate Achilles heel as his greed can often make him either blind to the situation around him, cruel to others, or just a selfish jerk in general. Hell, in the episode "Launchpad's First Crash" he's willing to throw Launchpad out of the plane to die instead of losing his diamonds to lighten the plane. But despite Scrooge's greedy demeanor, he's still more often than not a kindhearted soul and someone in love with the idea of adventure. Scrooge was once again voiced by Alan Young, who would remain Scrooge's voice until his passing in 2016.
The nephews are Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck. The trio have a long history with Disney, first appearing in the 1937 Silly Symphonies short "Donald's Nephews", where they served as the antagonists to their Uncle Donald. Since then, they've appeared in multiple animated shorts and comic books. They share the same adventurous streak that Scrooge represents and prove to be helpful to Scrooge on his many adventures across the globe. The reason they are very smart and resourceful is due mostly in part to being members of the Junior Woodchucks. They often use the Junior Woodchucks guidebook to help them out in a pinch. Despite all three being quite similar in character for the most part, each nephew is distinguishable through their different colored clothing. Huey wears red, Dewey wears blue and Louie wears green.
The trio do have some of their own unique traits. Huey is an expert marbles player and even once managed to destroy a heat seeking missile with one. Dewey seems to be the strategist of the three, and also seems to be the one most self-conscious over the fact that they all look and sound alike. In "The Duck In The Iron Mask", he even briefly changes his outfit in hopes it'll make him stand out. Louie has aspirations in becoming a salesman in the episode "Much Ado About Scrooge" after being impressed by the talents of expert salesman Filler Brushbill. All three were voiced by Russi Taylor. She's known for several voices including Martin Prince on The Simpsons, but is most well known as the voice of Minnie Mouse since 1986.
Launchpad McQuack is Scrooge's pilot. He's a kindhearted individual, though extremely dimwitted for the most part. He has a love for the sky and is an ace pilot. Well, in all areas except for landing planes. Launchpad has never met an aircraft he hasn't crashed. He was voiced by Terrence McGovern, who still works to this day, particularly voice acting in video games like Telltale's The Walking Dead. Mrs. Beakley serves as the nanny and caretaker for McDuck manor, often trying to keep the boys in line. She gets a few great moments, particularly in the episode "Maid Of The Myth" where she races against a viking known as Thor. Veteran voice actress Joan Gerber provided Beakley's voice. Gerber had been in the business since 1959 when she provided voice work for Matty's Funday Funnies. She also did voice work for everything from Roger Ramjet to Scooby Doo, Goof Troop, and her final major work in 2003's Duck Dodgers. Sadly, Joan passed away in 2011.
And then there's Webbigail "Webby" Vanderquack, Beakley's granddaughter. Webby is your standard overly cute little girl character, which while it seems like that limits her character (even I nagged on her in older reviews) she can prove to be just as resourceful as the nephews, even more so. A strong example is the episode "Merit-Time Adventure" where she proves her smarts as a Junior Woodchuck in being able to not only captain a ship, but even saving Launchpad from drowning. I still think I prefer the modern take on Webby, but in the rewatch of DuckTales for this blog, I've softened my mindset on her classic take much more. Fun fact: Webby is one of the several DuckTales characters who ended up appearing in other shows. In Webby's case, she appeared in 1992's Raw Toonage (As did Scrooge and Launchpad). But we'll get to talking more about Raw Toonage when we get to 1992. Webby was also voiced by Russi Taylor.
Other characters include Duckworth, Scrooge's butler. He's your standard serious, no nonsense butler and chauffeur for Scrooge. Occasionally snarky with a dry, British wit, he can often be extremely snide to Scrooge's comments, but more often than not be there to aid his boss out whenever the situation demands. Despite his demeanor at times, he loves working for Scrooge and wouldn't want any other career. Veteran actor Chuck McCann provided his voice. McCann has appeared in everything from The Bob Newhart Show, to Pac-Man to The Powerpuff Girls. McCann is still in the business, and even voiced Duckworth again for DuckTales: Remastered.
There's also Gyro Gearloose, a bumbling inventor that often tries to aid Scrooge with all of his crackpot creations that more often than not end up making things worse for everyone. From robots so perfect at everything that they eventually try to takeover the world, to a spray that teleports whatever you apply it to. In the episode "Sir Gyro De Gearloose" he hates being looked at as only a gadget man, until a trip back in time helps him to realize that being a gadget man is a gift. Hal Smith voiced Gyro. Smith is best remembered as lovable town drunk Otis from the Andy Griffith Show.
Also there's Doofus Drake, a fat, nerdy kid who's friends to the nephews, along with being a fellow Junior Woodchuck. He particularly looks up to Launchpad and considers Launchpad to be his hero. He can for the most part be kind of dimwitted, and he usually doesn't go a few minutes without eating something, but he usually can be helpful in certain situations. Brian Cummings (Who was Sir Tuxford in Gummi Bears from season 3 onward) provides the voice of Doofus.
Added in Season 2 were Bubba, a young caveduck that Scrooge and company accidentally bring to modern times with his pet triceratops Tootsie. I can see why a lot of people seem to dislike Bubba with all his "Scooge" utterings and wild attitude, but I enjoy him. The other major addition is Fenton Crackshell, Scrooge's foolish accountant who thanks to a super suit created by Gyro becomes the superhero Gizmoduck. Whenever he utters "Blatherin' Blatherskite!" the suit attaches to him, giving him super powers. Everything from a helicopter head to laser fingers. He lives with his couch potato mother, who usually treats him like a nobody, at least until Fenton finds his backbone. He also is deeply in love with a woman named Gandra Dee. Hamilton Camp voiced Fenton, and Frank Welker provided the voice work for Bubba.
What would an adventure series like DuckTales be without its cast of villains? And DuckTales has a top notch rogues gallery. The Beagle Boys are a group of criminals whose primary goal is to try and rob Scrooge's money bin. They're often are used as henchmen for the other villains of the show, though they mostly work for their mother Ma Beagle (a take on Ma Barker). The core beagles include Big Time Beagle, Burger Beagle, Babyface Beagle and Bouncer Beagle. With others like Bankjob Beagle, Bomber Beagle, Bugle Beagle and...
Megabyte Beagle. I guess they ran out of B names. I dunno, maybe Bitmap Beagle?
Flintheart Glomgold is the second richest duck in the world, no thanks to his longtime rival Scrooge. Most episodes involving Glomgold see him challenging Scrooge to some sort of competition and finding any way to cheat in order to gain the upper hand. More often than not with the aid of the Beagle Boys. But, like all good villains, he always fails in the end. Hal Smith also voiced Glomgold.
Then finally rounding out the regulars is Magica De Spell. A sorceress with a thick Russian accent (A clear reference to June Foray's Natasha Fatale) who wants Scrooge's #1 dime to give her ultimate power. Her episodes usually involve her using magic to try to steal the dime, only for it to blow up in her face. Be it from her own hubris, or Scrooge being able to easily outsmart her. All that magic, yet she won't even bother to turn her brother Poe back to normal after she turned him into a crow (though they seem to drop Poe entirely after a few Magica appearances). She also holds her hideout atop Mount Vesuvius. Magica was voiced by June Foray, who we recently discussed in our Gummi Bears review as she provided the voice of Grammi Gummi.
So now that we've covered the cast, it's time to talk about the theme song. Or as some consider it, the catchiest theme song in known history. It's very bouncy and fun, which is perfect for a show the caliber of DuckTales. It gives us promises of race cars, lasers, aeroplanes. Might solve a mystery, or rewrite history. And don't forget that chorus of "Ducktales! Woo-Hoo!" For thirty years, this song has been trapped in people's heads thanks mainly in part to that chorus. It was written by Mark Mueller, who worked on several other classic themes including Rescue Rangers) and was performed by Jeff Pescetto, who also did the lyrics for the next show on our list, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.
FAVORITE EPISODES
We have 101 episodes in this series. One Hundred and One! The most episodes of any of the shows we'll be covering in this retrospective. So, much like Gummi Bears, there will no doubt be a lot of episodes I loved, but in the interest of keeping this from going forever, I'll streamline it to about a quarter of that. Thankfully DuckTales was no stranger to the multi-part story, so that helps matters at least. I think I'll do less reviewing for these and give out a slightly more detailed synopsis for each. Keeps me from typing "I liked this episode" (Well duh, if it's a favorite of mine) about 30 times. If an episode did entertain me enough, I'll add more of my own thoughts within.
-Treasure of the Golden Suns Five Parter: I covered all five parts back during DuckMonth in June of last year, but in this five-part movie pilot, Donald leaves the nephews with Scrooge. After a rocky reception at first, they soon bond when they learn of a mysterious Aztec treasure and go on the adventure of a lifetime, while dealing with the likes of the Beagle Boys, Glomgold, and a mysterious gold-obsessed man named El Capitan. It shows off the strength of DuckTales off the bat, giving us five episodes focused around one plot that sends the characters all over the globe in adventures that honestly could be their own self-contained stories.
-Where No Duck Has Gone Before: Scrooge ends up buying a television studio that airs Courage of the Cosmos, a Star Trek-like series that the nephews and Doofus love. However, when Scrooge gets Gyro to make the set look more realistic, he accidentally makes a real rocket ship that sends the nephews, Launchpad, and the show's overzealous star Major Courage into space. When they get captured by Aliens, it's up to Launchpad to save the day while dealing with Major Courage constantly making things worse due to believing that this is all part of the show and Launchpad is trying to upstage him.
-Armstrong: Gyro invents a robot named Armstrong, which is so advanced that he can literally do anything. Armstrong can clean, cook, put Scrooge's employees out of jobs, and even out-pilot Launchpad, giving our favorite pilot an unfortunate blow to his self esteem. However, much like the old saying goes, you can't have too much of a good thing. And as such Armstrong turns on Scrooge. Not only does he capture Scrooge and Gyro, but Armstrong manages to link himself to all of the world's technology. It's up to the nephews and Launchpad to put down the bucket of bolts once and for all.
-Robot Robbers: Flintheart Glomgold's construction company gains the aid of giant robots created by Gyro. Unlike Armstrong (which they actually bring up the events of the last episode by the way. Hooray for continuity!) these robots are man powered, so what could possibly go wrong? Well, nobody factored in Ma Beagle stealing a robot to break some of the Beagle Boys out of the slammer. She has them commandeer the other robots and the group run amok through Duckburg. It's up to Scrooge and Glomgold to put aside their issues to shut down the robots before they get into Scrooge's money bin.
-Duckman of Aquatraz: Scrooge gets arrested for grand theft of one of Glomgold's paintings, leaving him incarcerated in the deadly prison island of Aquatraz. While behind bars, Scrooge befriends his gruff cellmate by the name of Mad Dog McGurk, who repays Scrooge's kindness by trying to help him break out. Meanwhile, the nephews try to get the evidence they need to prove Scrooge's innocence.
-Down And Out In Duckburg: Scrooge's arrogance to the poor comes back to bite him when a conniving fox named Fritter O'Way takes possession of Scrooge's home due to a contract signed between their grandparents. When they can't stand living under the insanity of Fritter, Scrooge and the gang leave the manor and become penniless, living on the street. Their only hope is to fulfill the agreement of the contract to get their home back. This episode seems to be a mixed one for most, but I enjoy it (Despite the massive shift in animation as this was a Burbank Studios affair and after watching tons of TMS episodes before this one, it's a jarring change of style). Mainly for the last act and so many great moments of Duckworth being a total savage.
-Top Duck: The big airshow is coming up and Launchpad is in a panic. Mainly because he fears that he'll embarrass himself in front of his family, the world famous Flying McQuacks. Meanwhile, Scrooge unveils his new super plane, the McX, which the Beagle Boys want to use to break into Scrooge's money bin. This episode made my favorites list not only for being a rather fun episode throughout, but may have one of my all time favorite moments involving Scrooge haggling Bomber Beagle into paying to use the McX. It's one of the finest moments of Scrooge's greed on the show.
-Earthquack: Based on one of Carl Barks' classic stories, earthquakes begin to become more frequent in Duckburg. Fearing his money bin is in danger, Scrooge searches underground for the solution. But what he finds is a race of ball-like creatures known as Terra Firmians, who are competing in an event called "The Games" to win the coveted crackpot trophy. It's up to Scrooge and the Nephews to put a stop to the games before it's too late for Scrooge's fortune.
-Micro Ducks From Outer Space: Another one based on a classic Carl Barks story. Gyro makes contact with space travelers in search of food. Luckily Scrooge can provide it. However, Scrooge soon learns that these aliens are microscopic in size, and brought with them a device that can grow and shrink objects. In Scrooge's misguided greed, he tries to use the machine to grow a tiny gold nugget, only to end up shrinking himself, Webby and the nephews. Now microscopic and the machine broken, the five of them set out to make it to Gyro in hopes he'll help them out of this mess. If they can survive dangers of the big world outside. If you want a great example at how great the TMS era of animation for the show is, this is one of their finest works in terms of how visually stunning they make the gigantic Duckburg. Shrinking is a cliche that a lot of Disney Afternoon shows use (Gummi Bears did as well with Little Gummis Lost), but DuckTales easily has the best one of the bunch.
-Back To The Klondike: it's just before Valentine's Day and Scrooge tells the nephews and Webby about his days in the Klondike, and his love for a girl named Glittering Goldie. When the despicable Dirty Dan stole Scrooge's gold and blamed it on Goldie, it caused a rift between the two. Scrooge returns to the Klondike to find more gold in his claim, but also meets back up with Glittering Goldie. This is another story based on the works of Carl Barks and it plays off quite well, giving us a great new character in Glittering Goldie and a pretty enjoyable love story. I do feel due to the flashback, the episode does feel rushed. I wouldn't have minded the episode being a two parter with one part focusing on the past and the other in the present. But what we still get is solid stuff.
-Cash As Cash Can Four Parter: In order to be the sole seller of the Grand Kischke's firefly fruit, Scrooge and Glomgold must compete in a contest to see who is truly the richest duck in the world by weighing their fortunes. What follows is four episodes of Scrooge defending or having to rescue his money from many different threats (mostly made by Glomgold). First, Glomgold frees the Beagle Boys, and during Scrooge's attempts to defend his fortune, the money falls into the sewers below. After that, Scrooge tries to move his money by sea by covering it up as ice cream. However, when a sea monster eats his "ice cream" (giving us a classic Scrooge moment), Scrooge goes to hunt it down, only to learn that it's actually a super powered whale sub. In the struggle, the fortune ends up dumped to the bottom of the Marinara Trench. Scrooge then has to rescue his money from an underwater race, before finally trying to get his money weighed. It's some prime adventure tales that weave into one of the show's strongest multi-part episodes.
-Double-O-Duck: After discovering that Launchpad is a dead ringer for Bruno Von Beak, an evil agent of the Foreign Organization of World Larceny (FOWL), J. Gander Hoover enlists Launchpad to join the DIA as a secret agent, in hopes of stopping the nefarious Dr. Nogood. Armed with the right gadgets to aid in his quest, Launchpad tries his hand in the dangerous world of being a super spy. This episode is important. Maybe not so much for DuckTales, but its very setup feels like an intended backdoor pilot for a Launchpad spinoff. That's technically what happens, but we'll elaborate on what became of this plot and concept in a few reviews from now. But if you know certain names like FOWL and J. Gander, you know what I'm referring to.
-Duckworth's Revolt: Due to a misunderstanding, Scrooge fires Duckworth after believing he may be holding him back. Despite the fact that Duckworth actually loves working for Scrooge. But before he can process what to do next, he gets abducted by aliens along with the nephews. The aliens are a race of vegetable creatures who have enslaved beings from other planets to tend to their gardens. It's up to Duckworth and the nephews to help the captives to stand up against the veggie oppressors. While Duckworth is mostly written to be the snide, but caring butler to Scrooge, it's nice to see him get a moment of awesome every now and then. And this episode definitely serves as one of those moments.
-Duck To The Future: Magica tricks Scrooge into being warped forty years into the future where not only has she stolen Scrooge's number one dime, but the nephews have become Trump-like tyrants, Webby and Doofus are married, and a whole mess of problems befall our favorite miser. It's up to Scrooge to put an end to Magica's tyranny and make it back to the present to prevent this nightmare of a future.
-Nothing To Fear: Magica creates a storm cloud that unleashes the worst fears of whoever is underneath it. For example, Duckworth thinks the limo is a monster, the nephews believe they're being attacked by a deadly video game villain and Scrooge faces his worst fear... bill collectors. What places this episode in my favorites is that its third act gets kind of dark as the fears ramp up. with the nephews and Scrooge being tricked into thinking the others hate them. Forget the cartoonish fears like Doofus and the monster banana, the thought that the nephews' biggest fear is Scrooge disowning them (sort of a callback to the pilot) or Scrooge thinking the nephews suddenly turned into brats only after his money is actually a believable set of fears for these characters. It really shows in the end how much everyone loves each other for them to overcome their worse fears. A quality moral and a quality episode.
-Ducky Horror Picture Show: Scrooge opens up a new convention center which becomes a hit attraction for every monster imaginable. Drakeula, Wolfduck, the blob, the creature from the blue lagoon, you name it. Scrooge tries to get rid of the monsters, but doing so means he loses on an investment for the first time in his life. The monsters are also tired of being treated poorly, as they try to find some compromise with Scrooge.
-Super DuckTales Five Parter: I covered this one in full last June, but for a quick recap, Scrooge is forced to move his money bin, and needs to hire an accountant. He ends up with Fenton Crackshell, a bumbling bean counter with a great mind for counting. The beagle boys and Ma Beagle try multiple plots to steal the money from Scrooge's bin, but when Fenton accidentally activates Gyro's new super suit, he becomes the superhero known as Gizmoduck.
-The Good Muddahs: Webby ends up kidnapped by the Beagle Babes, cousins of the Beagle Boys. At first she hates being their captor, but after feeling unappreciated by everyone at home, she comes to love her new friends. The Beagle Babes easily became dark horse favorites of mine after watching this episode. They're among the show's most fun additions. Shame this is their only appearance, I would have loved to see more of Bombshell, Boom-Boom and Bouffant Beagle.
-Metal Attraction: Gyro, not learning his lesson apparently after Armstrong, invents a robot to help Mrs. Beakley around the mansion. He invents Robotica, and gives her a personality. However that personality is one that becomes insanely attracted to Gizmoduck. Meanwhile, Fenton's constant showering of affections might be putting a strain on his relationship with Gandra Dee.
-The Masked Mallard: Scrooge's reputation is tarnished thanks to a trash TV reporter named Lawrence Loudmouth. In hopes to restore his good name, Scrooge dons a superhero alter ego by the name of the Masked Mallard. However, the good reputation of the Masked Mallard also comes into jeopardy when an impostor begins a crime spree. It's up to Scrooge to clear his name and stop the impostor, while also dealing with the bumbling Gizmoduck. Similar to Double-O-Duck, this episode would be pivotal in the development to another Disney Afternoon show down the line. It doesn't hurt that it's a really good superhero story.
-Ducky Mountain High: The fourth season opens with Scrooge heading to his paper mill in the Ducky Mountains and discovering golden trees. However he hits a snag in that they're in land belonging to Glittering Goldie. If that's not enough of a headache, Glomgold (along with some mountain men Beagle Boys) try to bump off Scrooge while also trying to get in on Goldie's claim.
-The Golden Goose Two-Parter: In the DuckTales series finale, Dijon, a shifty pickpocket who was introduced in DuckTales: The Movie, winds up in a temple run by his brother Poupon. The monks of the temple protect the golden goose, an item that can turn anything into gold. When Dijon steals it, it ends up in the possession of Scrooge, who goes gold crazy over it. Unfortunately Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys are also after it, and in the scuffle the nephews get turned into gold. And what's worse, the goose eventually comes to life and turns more things into gold. It's up to Scrooge to save the whole world before it succumbs to the golden death. For the final episodes of DuckTales, these are among the most exciting. We've had the gang deal with some big situations, but none that have ever felt as apocalyptic as the events of this episode. Dijon is a bit of a problematic character, playing up a "greedy Arab" stereotype, but he does get some redemption for his actions in the movie... for like a couple seconds. While I think I still found King Igthorn to be the best final episodes for a Disney Afternoon series on this rewatch, this still comes awful close.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Send In The Clones: Magica and the Beagle Boys pretend to be the nephews and Mrs. Beakley to steal Scrooge's dime.
Magica's Shadow War: Magica creates living shadows to steal Scrooge's dime. However, one shadow goes rogue.
The Money Vanishes: The Beagle Boys steal Gyro's invisibility formula to steal all of Scrooge's money.
Pearl of Wisdom: A pair of thieves steal a valuable jewel, which Webby mistakes for a marble.
Time Teasers: The Beagle Boys steal Gyro's stopwatch that can stop time. However, when Scrooge and the others try to stop them, they all end up in the age of pirates.
The Duck In The Iron Mask: Scrooge discovers that a friend of his, Count Roy, has been locked up and has been usurped by his brother Ray.
Once Upon A Dime: Scrooge tells the story of how he got his number one dime.
Til' Nephews Do Us Part: When Scrooge almost gets married to Millionara Vanderbucks, the nephews and Webby try to stop her plans to steal Scrooge's fortune.
Time Is Money Five Parter: When Scrooge and the gang travel to the stone age to beat Glomgold on a diamond mine claim, they end up meeting a cave duck named Bubba who follows them back to the present.
Allowance Day: To get their allowance a day early, the nephews trick Scrooge (and the rest of the world) into thinking it's the wrong day.
Dough Ray Me: When the nephews use Gyro's cloning ray to multiply coins, things get out of control, and it creates a financial crisis.
Blue Collar Scrooge: Scrooge loses his memory and ends up working at one of his own factories, now being run by Fenton pretending to be Scrooge.
Attack Of The Fifty-Foot Webby: When Webby gets exposed to a magic pool, she turns into a giant. However, she also becomes the target of an evil circus owner.
Scrooge's Last Adventure: Scrooge believes he's dying, so he has his money transferred via computer. But when a virus almost wipes out his fortune, he and Fenton get digitized to save it.
LEAST FAVORITE EPISODES
Honestly, there weren't too many episodes I flat out disliked, but there were still a couple. And even then, there was none that I full on hated as I still feel that almost every DuckTales episode, even bad ones, still have some redeeming qualities to them.
-Master Of The Djinni: Scrooge and Glomgold find Aladdin's magic lamp. But when both of them free the genie, it becomes a race to determine who will become the genie's master. Unfortunately for them, this genie doesn't play fair and zaps them back into the ancient past. While there are some fun moments in this episode (everything involving Scrooge and Glomgold), I felt this episode suffered from being too rushed. We go straight into the adventure with a lot of exposition. The genie, while a silly character, also feels like his motivations for making things hard are a bit muddy. He wants to be free, but compared to Genie from the movie, he's such an unlikable jerk that you don't feel bad for his plight. And the ending which retcons everything really makes this episode pointless. In other words, this plot was handled much better with DuckTales: The Movie.
-Jungle Duck: Scrooge's latest hunt for silver has the crew crashed in the jungle. Mrs. Beakley ends up being captured by a jungle man who is soon revealed to be Prince Graydrake, a young boy she took care of twenty years prior who mysteriously vanished. Scrooge and the gang decide to help him get back home to finally claim his kingdom before his evil uncle can usurp the throne. So, it's essentially Tarzan mixed in with a bit of Hamlet. The episode isn't really that bad structurally, but it feels super rushed, especially in the last few minutes as they throw in the whole "it was your evil uncle that sabotaged the plane you crashed in" subplot involving Graydrake's disappearance. Outside of that, for a take on Tarzan, it's still entertaining, but I just wish it was better paced.
LEGACY
DuckTales was a massive success for Disney, being a smash hit out of the gate. It doubled the normal audiences for for syndicated children's programming. Likely due to the fact that the show's more family friendly adventures were considered more suitable for families in comparison to the more commercialized shows airing at the time. DuckTales was even nominated for multiple Emmys in 1988 and 1989, ultimately winning for best one hour animated program and sound editing. That's not to say DuckTales wasn't commercial itself, with all sorts of merchandise. The most famous being video games, including two games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. DuckTales in 1989 was first official game from Capcom to use their newly acquired Disney license (Mickey Mousecapade was a port of a Hudson Soft title, so it doesn't count) and went on to be one of the best selling games on the system. It was followed up by a sequel game DuckTales 2 in 1993, which sold less due to the show not airing anymore, compounded with the dying interest in the console. There was also a comic run by Gladstone comics that lasted from 1990 to 1991.
On August 3rd, 1990, Disney released DuckTales: The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp to theaters. In term of being a theatrical adaptation of the series, it worked quite well and serves a fun film overall. I also reviewed it back in June. Despite a budget of about two million, the film only made 18 million in the box office, still unfortunately making it a box office bomb for Disney and killing any future plans for DuckTales movies and other films based on Disney Afteroon shows. Except one, but we'll get to that one soon enough. It's especially disheartening since the company had just bounced back big time with The Little Mermaid the prior year. DuckTales finished airing the final episodes on the new Disney Afternoon block that fall, and lasted on the block until 1992 when it was cycled out. Despite some cameo appearances in other projects (Webby, Launchpad and Scrooge in Raw Toonage, the nephews in the infamous Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue), DuckTales rode off into the sunset. Despite some re-airings on Toon Disney and some new comics being released, there wasn't much else to do with DuckTales.
Cut to 2013 when Capcom came calling back with DuckTales: Remastered, a HD remake of the NES classic. And what's more, a reunion of the show's surviving cast. Alan Young, Russi Taylor, June Foray, Chuck McCann and Terrence McGovern returned to reprise their classic characters in what can be considered the true final hurrah of the classic series. And despite the 20+ years since the show ended and the voice cast sounding much older (Young and Foray both in their mid-nineties), it didn't feel like there was much rust at all to the original cast. Young would continue to voice Scrooge McDuck for the new Mickey Mouse shorts until his passing on May 19th of 2016 at the age of 96. June Foray would pass away a year later on July 26th, 2017.
But it turned out that DuckTales the franchise was far from done. In 2015 it was announced by Disney that they were rebooting the series for their channel Disney XD. Skepticism was high, especially after realizing the voice cast would be replaced. But when the show premiered in 2017, it exceeded expectations. It added new depth to the characters while feeling true to a more modern show like Gravity Falls. They updated the nephews to have their own unique traits. Webby and Beakley got massive character changes with Beakley acting as caretaker and bodyguard to Scrooge, while Webby is far less the cutesy kid of the original and more the fish out of water character who wants to experience a world outside of being cooped up in Scrooge's mansion. The show even brought Donald Duck back as a main character. No more sporadic appearances. Of course more garbled dialogue from Donald which really could use subtitles. As for Scrooge, he's still everyone's favorite greedy, cheap, self-centered, but adventure loving richest duck in the world. Plus he's voiced by David Tennant, so that's a big win. It feels fresh, it feels nostalgic. It just feels good to have DuckTales back.
FINAL THOUGHTS
DuckTales was a bigger part of my childhood than Gummi Bears was, so this rewatch of all 101 episodes was met with a whole bunch of nostalgia and buried memories. I ended up remembering more episodes than I thought I would, and it's good to see those memories held up quite well. Though, if I were to be honest, I think the show's strength was in its first season. It focused a lot more on big globetrotting adventures and had the beautiful animation of Tokyo Movie Shinsha to accompany it for the majority. Not knocking Wang Films/Cuckoo's Nest, as their quality got much better over time as well. Season 2 is solid too, but since it's only two five-parters, it's hard to really judge it. Season 3 was a mixed bag for me. There were some really fun episodes, but the show seemed to focus less on traveling the world for treasure and more wacky slice of life adventures in Duckburg. They also omitted a lot of characters. Some easily expendable like Doofus and Donald Duck, others who got barely as much screen time than before like Launchpad, who only appears in three episodes throughout season 3. I'll give credit to season 4 being a bit better (despite just being season 3 runoff), and ending the show proper on a strong final two parter.
In the end, while I was happy to finish DuckTales, I definitely loved this rewatch. It brought me back to one of my favorite shows and it holds up quite well. Save for a lot of dated pop culture references in places, and maybe a few too many duck puns that will make you grimace. Favorite characters for me overall were Scrooge, Launchpad, Magica De Spell, Flintheart Glomgold, Burger Beagle, Duckworth, Bubba, The Beagle Babes, Webby and Mrs. Beakley. Just to name a couple hands full of course. It's honestly good to see that Disney still cares about this franchise and that its legacy still feels like it matters. It was an important piece of Disney's climb back to relevance in the eighties, and now in its thirtieth year of life on this planet, it's getting another chance to entertain a new generation of kids and kids at heart. So here's to another thirty years of DuckTales. May there still be a place to solve a mystery or rewrite history.
FINAL RATING: A
OFFICIAL SHOW RANKING:
#1. Disney's DuckTales
#2. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
That's it for our DuckTales review, but there's more fun coming up with "All in a Disney Afternoon"...
We jump to our last pre-Disney Afternoon cartoon as we look at the many big adventures of Disney's tiniest heroes. There's no case too big, no case too small. When you need help just call Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.
No comments:
Post a Comment